protostars tagged posts

Simulations show why stars formed in different environments form similar masses. Last year, a team of astrophysicists including key members from Northwestern University launched STARFORGE, a project that produces the most realistic, highest-resolution 3D simulations of star formation to date. Now, the scientists have used the highly detailed simulations to uncover what determines the masses of stars, a mystery that has captivated astrophysicists for decades.

In a new study, the team discovered that star formation is a self-regulatory process. In other words, stars themselves set their own masses. This helps explain why stars formed in disparate environments still have similar masses...

A false-color image map of the gas density in the Musca star-forming filament (the highest densities are shown in red). New theoretical work on the structure of these long filaments proposes several kinds of star-forming zones along the length and successfully reproduces many of the features seen in filaments like this one in Musca. Kainulainen, 2016

Interstellar molecular clouds are often seen to be elongated and “filamentary” in shape, and come in a wide range of sizes. In molecular clouds, where stars form, the filamentary structure is thought to play an important role in star formation as the matter collapses to form protostars...

This is an artist impression of the whirlwind being liftet up from the protoplanetary disk around the approximately 100,000 year old protostar, TMC1A. Credit: Per Bjerkeli/David Lamm/BOID

Researchers from Niels Bohr Institute have used ALMA telescopes to observe the early stages in the formation of a new solar system. For the first time they have seen how a powerful whirlwind shoot out from the rotating disc of gas and dust surrounding the young star. A new solar system is formed in a large cloud of gas and dust that contracts and condenses due to the force of gravity and eventually becomes so compact that the centre collapses into a ball of gas where the pressure heats the material, resulting in a glowing globe of gas, a star...